Can Adam Scott Rebound in 2016?

Adam Scott is looking to bounce back from a forgettable 2015 season. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports /

After a slump in 2015, can the Aussie Adam Scott rebound in 2016? Here’s an outlook for his new year on the PGA TOUR.

When the USGA announced its plan to eradicate anchored putting from the sport of golf, we knew that it would have significant ramifications for many of the world’s top players. In the months leading up to the ban, which took effect on January 1, 2016, major champions Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson fell out of the top 50 in the world rankings; Ernie Els is languishing at No. 190. All three found significant success while wielding belly putters earlier in their careers, and in trying to stay ahead of the ban and convert to conventional lengths, their games suffered.

Not all anchorers were so negatively affected, however. Former world No. 1 Adam Scott, who won the 2013 Masters with a long putter, is still well-entrenched in the game’s upper echelons, currently occupying the 12th spot in the world rankings. As a result, his status within the game has gone largely unchanged–the Aussie will still earn invites to the majors and WGCs–but his inconsistent 2015 season means that he’ll be one to watch during this new year.

Always a late starter even in the face of the recently introduced wraparound schedule, Scott’s year began at the WGC-Cadillac Championship, where he promptly tied for fourth. After that, he didn’t find the top 20 in his next seven starts, but he snapped that streak with another tie for fourth, this time at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. That week was especially notable due to a reunion with retired caddy Steve Williams, who many predicted would get the sluggish Scott back on track for a strong finish to the season.

It didn’t happen. Scott tied for 10th at the Open Championship (his fourth consecutive top 10 in that event) but went ice cold shortly after, failing to finish in the top 40 in any of his remaining events. After missing the cut at the Barclays, his PGA Tour season came to an abrupt end.

Scott’s season included many stressors: switching between caddies, first-time fatherhood, a shortage of starts. However, none was as significant as his experimentation with the flatstick. Scott, who came up in the early 200s as a conventional putter, was initially regarded as one of the players better suited to the belly putter ban. However, he was unsuccessful after making the switch, and he returned to anchoring for the summer’s majors, perhaps because he saw them as his last good opportunity to win one. He sniffed contention in the Opens, but his game went south from there. 2015 wound up as his first winless year since 2000.

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That may sound like just another tale of a player being sabotaged by the anchored putting ban, but the story doesn’t end there. At the Presidents Cup, Scott commented that he was going with the conventional putter for good, and shortly thereafter, he became extremely productive. The 35-year-old finished the year with five top 10s in his last six starts, including a pair of runner-up finishes.

No, that finishing run doesn’t tell the whole story. One of those top 10s came at the Hero World Challenge, which includes just 16 players, and some of the others were low-wattage Asian or Australasian Tour events. Still, Scott got great results over the seven-week stretch and proved that the anchored putting ban won’t necessarily be the death knell of his career.

Where does that leave Scott as he gets set to start the 2016 season, his 15th on the PGA Tour? Clearly, he’s taken a step back from where he was a couple of years ago. He won the Masters in 2013 and ascended to the top spot in the world rankings in 2014. In 2015, he gained about 132 world ranking points, slotting in right between Robert Streb and David Lingmerth.

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However, we need to acknowledge the extenuating circumstances under which Scott was playing for much of the year, and his late-season run provides a glimmer of hope. There’s no telling how a full season with a conventional putter will work out for him, but Scott should provide a fascinating case study of just how well a player can make the transition if he absolutely has to.

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